What to look for when CrowdStrike (CRWD) reports Q4 earnings

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) is scheduled to report fourth quarter 2020 earnings results on Thursday, March 19, after the market closes. The company is expected to report a loss of $0.08 per share on revenue of $137.7 million.

The cybersecurity firm’s topline numbers are expected to benefit from strong growth in subscriptions. The increasing demand for security solutions in the current environment will prove beneficial for the company. The company’s highly flexible and easy-to-install platforms also gives it an edge over its rivals in the space.

The expansion and demand for the Falcon platform is also likely to drive growth in the to-be-reported quarter. However, CrowdStrike is expected to incur higher expenses due to increasing investments in the cloud security market. These expenses are likely to weigh on the bottom line results.

In the third quarter of 2020, CrowdStrike topped market estimates with an 88% increase in total revenues and a narrower-than-expected adjusted loss of $0.07 per share. Subscription revenue jumped 98% to $114 million. The company added a record 772 net new subscription customers, taking the total number of subscriptions customers to 4,561 at the end of the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter of 2020, CrowdStrike has guided for revenue of $135.9 million to $138.6 million. Adjusted net loss is expected to be in the range of $19.1 million to $17.2 million, while adjusted loss per share is estimated to be $0.09-0.08.

For fiscal 2020, the company expects revenues of $465.2-468.0 million and an adjusted loss of $77.7-75.8 million. Full-year adjusted loss per share is expected to be between $0.53 and $0.52.

CrowdStrike’s shares have fallen 43% in the past one month. The stock was up 13% in afternoon hours on Tuesday.